Tips for Better User Experience and Site Design

User experience and site design is a tricky thing. Not because the process is inherently complicated, but because you have to put yourself in another person’s assumed non-techie shoes from a user’s perspective.

Seamlessly integrating the two together can seem difficult. It’s a combination of solid visuals and successful website pages that not only work, but make sense to your target market. Luckily for you, SEO Brand’s got some tips for creating a better user experience and site design for your e-commerce site.

It may surprise you to know that there is a lot to learn from video game designers. Their use of creativity is an invaluable source of inspiration to build your e-commerce website. Why? Because video games are designed with two major intents: 1. To keep the consumer playing and 2. To be FUN. When these concepts are translated into a business site, you can achieve page views, clicks, and more form submissions.

Here are four tips from the video game industry to better handle your user experience and site design.

Think of Your Audience. Jerry Ashcroft is a Software Engineer specializing in User Interface Development at EA Sports, a division of Electronic Arts. Ashcroft works with the development for Madden and NCAA football games. This means that, while he’s not the primary designer or artist for how a user interacts with a game, he’s the guy that translates a sketch on a piece of paper into a fully functional software system:

Madden tends to try and take art cues from professional football coverage from stations such as Fox Sports and ESPN, while still remaining true to its own brand. NCAA tries to be slightly more grassroots, as the college games don’t have the same production value as their NFL counterparts, but have a LOT more tradition and spirit from its fan base. Functionally though, both games try to deliver an authentic simulation.

So when designing the interface, the Madden and NCAA development teams have to think differently because the users for both games are different, despite their commonality of being into sports.

Website design is similar. The interface should reflect your specializations. The user shouldn’t have to guess what your company does, or how to get to that information. Think of your user, because that interface is meant for them.

Make Them Stay. Your e-commerce site should be able to balance user experience and site design for something that is both appealing and keeps users roaming the page for longer periods of time. This might include adding video, but it also means making your site as easy-to-use as possible.

Interface design is pretty universal. You want to make sure an average user understands how to navigate and interact with your brand. You want to make sure that they don’t get frustrated with a learning curve for your product, and choose to leave. So it isn’t just about keeping a user interested, it’s also about highlighting your website features and making sure a potential client can access them.

Use Common Sense. A user should be able to navigate a page on their own without too much guidance. Tabs should be clearly labeled and topic titles consistent across the board. Buttons should work, audio pieces should play, and content should be legible.

To help catch many of the basic issues, create a checklist both on the developer and the design side. This should cover everything from color and contrast to continuity from one page to another. And it should keep you from missing a lot of the key points necessary to keep an effective user interface.

Finally, you can’t rush projects if you want them to be successful. Take the time to work out the kinks, test your site, and create a working list of things you can do to make your e-commerce site better.

For more information how SEO Brand can take your user experience and site design to the next level, contact one of our representatives today. We can get you started.